Update October 2nd: Thank you all for your extreme patience, and very, very sorry for the long delay. Cairns scores have now been posted here.

Update July 17th: the San Francisco tiebreaker is over and I'm making the Cairns games. The list of Cairns games is here.

Update July 10th:List of San Franciso games is here and the final San Francisco scores are here.We should be able to start the Phase Four -- Cairns" by the end of the week! The C&F task for Cairns will be release at noon next Sunday, as close as possible to noon Cairns time. Note: for many of us in North America that will be late Saturday evening.

Update April 29th: The tiebreaker is finished, and Phase Two has begun for real now! For my complete update letter look here. Or, for a list of Vancouver Games, look here.

Update April 16th: The most recent score tally is here. There is a 3-player tiebreaker game (Game 8895136 if you want to watch and cheer) for the last Vancouver spot. I don't expect that game to be done in only 27 hours, but I will still post the Vancouver C&F task tomorrow on schedule.

Update April 10th: The most recent Interim Score tally is on page 13 of the tournament thread. You can use this link

Update March 21st: We are not accepting any more reserves at this point.

Update March 17th: The tournament now is officially FULL and ready to start. If you wish to sign up as a reserve, you are still very welcome to do so!

Update, March 08: A GA medal has now been approved for the "Most Expressive Excursionist."

The Most Expressive Excursionist medal will be awarded to the player who scores the most "colour and flavour" points, regardless of how well they do in the games.

If any of you were growing up as metalheads in the Seventies, you probably remember the great Ted Nugent album, Intensities in 10 Cities! Well, okay, maybe it wasn't a great album, maybe it was just alright. But for some reason, that clever title has always stuck with me, and I always wanted to do something with it. Thanks to CC, I now have an opportunity to do so.

As the title implies, you will go through ten cities in this tournament, and CC just happens to have ten city maps available. (We could stretch it to fifteen or even more if we wanted to push the definition of "city map" and include things like City Mogul, but luckily we don't need to do that, because ten is the perfect number to match the perfect title!)

1. This tournament will include almost every setting available on CC. There will be no speed and no freestyle, but every other type of game will be used. In each phase we will visit one city. There will be several games in each city, and points handed out accordingly. There will also be a few "colour and flavour" bonuses, which I will explain below. After each city some people will be eliminated, but (except at the very end) the majority will go on.Settings in detail:Assuming you get all the way to the end and play all 55 games, you will have played on the following:46 Automatic, 9 Manual26 Escalating, 16 Flat-rate, 4 No Spoils, 9 Nuclear7 Adjacent, 39 Chained, 9 Unlimited33 Sunny, 22 Foggy12 1v1s + 21 multiplayer Standard (for a total of 33 Standard), 5 Terminator, 5 Assassin, 4 Dubs, 5 Trips, 3 Quads

The average number of games per city stop is 5.5, with no less than four and no more than nine in any phase.

2. There will be up to nine games going on at one point (see above), so you must have premium status to enter.

3. There will be no seeding -- all players will be slotted into games at random. This includes the team games -- you must be prepared to play with random team-mates!

4. Points will be imperfectly cumulative. At the beginning of each city stop starting with the second, your cumulative points total will be reduced by one quarter (1/4). Points earned at that stop will then be added, before deciding who is eliminated. Example: on the first city stop, you earned 8 points, which was enough to take you to the second stop. Your 8 points are reduced by one quarter and become 6 points. At the second stop you earn 10 points, and your total is now 16. At the third city stop your 16 points are reduced by one quarter again and become 12, before adding the points earned in the third city. And so on, and so on. Thus, the importance of the early rounds will gradually fade as we move forward. To ease the pain of the fade, all numbers will be rounded up, never down. Thus, 5.25 points will be rounded to 6, not 5.

5. Reserves: I will take as many reserves as wish to sign up, although of course if the list is long your chances of being called up will be slim. In order to be fair to those who play all the way through, if a player is replaced by a reserve, his points total will get an extra one-quarter reduction before being counted into the current phase.

6. "Colour and flavour" bonuses. Each city stop will include a "colour and flavour" bonus, which will require you to post something in this thread to help us all get into the local flavour of the city we are visiting. What needs to be posted varies with the city. Some stops might require you to answer a trivia question, some will ask you to provide an anecdote or joke about that city, some might ask you to provide a description of a local landmark, and so on. I will announce what you need to post after the first game in that city has begun. Once I have made the announcement, you will have 72 hours to make the post.

7. Tiebreakers. Except in the finals, if there are any ties for the point level at which people are eliminated, they will be settled by tiebreaking Automatic Escalating Chained Sunny games. A simple two-person tie would be settled by a 1v1 Standard game, but if 3 or more people are involved I might use other formats. I might use a multi-player Standard game, or a Terminator game, or perhaps a round-robin of 1v1 games. It will depend on the total number involved in the tie and how many of them need to go to the next phase. I will be quite willing to listen to player input at these junctions.

There will be no points awarded for tiebreakers; they will simply decide which of the people with the same number of points get to go to the next city.

I will try to keep the tournament moving by starting the next phase as soon as possible -- as soon as there is no doubt who will carry on to the next city. So, for instance, if there is a Montreal game still going, but all the players in it already have enough points to guarantee that they will go on to the next phase, then I will go ahead and start the Vancouver games.

Okay, sign-ups are open -- come on in!

Last edited by Dukasaur on Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:20 pm, edited 66 times in total.

Appropriately enough, we will begin our tour at the place where CC began, the beautiful city of Montreal. 56 of us will arrive, but only 40 will continue on. The other 16 will take up permanent residence at some streetside cafe, which really isn't a bad fate at all!

Each player will participate in the following:One 7-player Manual Nuclear Chained Sunny Standard gameOne 7-player Automatic Escalating Chained Foggy Standard gameOne 7-player Automatic Escalating Unlimited Sunny Standard gameEach of the standard games scored by ranking: 6 points to the winner, 5 points to the 2nd place finisher, etc., all the way down to zero points for the first person eliminated.One Automatic Flat-rate Chained Foggy Quads game, 5 points to each participant on the winning team.5 points awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus.Maximum possible: 28 points

Leaving the St. Lawrence behind, we fly across three time zones to Canada's west coast, and the city of Vancouver. 40 players will arrive, but only 30 will go on to the next city. The rest will go out to the Island and enjoy picking mushrooms in the park!

I PM'd all the map creators to ask their suggested settings for these maps, although only about half answered me. shakeycat was one of those, and her suggestions for this map are Escalating Automatic Foggy Terminator, with not less than four players and preferably more. Consequently each player will play in:One 4-player Automatic Escalating Chained Foggy Terminator gameTwo 8-player Automatic Escalating Chained Foggy Terminator gamesAll three Terminator games score 1 point for each kill, 1 extra point for winning the game, 2 extra points for being the last non-winner terminated, and 1 extra point for being the 2nd last non-winner terminated.And to go to the other extreme from shakeycat's suggestions:One 1v1 Manual Nuclear Adjacent Sunny Standard game, 3 points to the winner.5 points awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus.Maximum possible: 28 points

If you're going to San Francisco, don't forget to put some flowers in your hair! One of the most visually stunning maps on CC, San Francisco promises to be an immersing experience. 30 players will arrive here, but only 24 will leave. The other six will be staring at this beautiful map so long that they will forget to take their turns. Or maybe they will be absorbed into the Krishna Consciousness. In San Fran, anything is possible!

Each player will participate in the following:One 6-player Automatic Escalating Chained Foggy Standard gameOne 5-player Manual Flat-rate Adjacent Sunny Standard gameEach of the standard games scored by ranking: 5 points to the winner of the 6-player game, 4 points to the winner of the 5-player game, 3 points to the 2nd place finisher in the 5-player game, etc., all the way down to zero points for the first person eliminated in each.One 6-player Automatic Flat-rate Unlimited Sunny Doubles game, scoring 6 points to each member of the winning team.And in honour of Harvey Milk, we will have our first Assassination:one 6-player Automatic Flat-rate Chained Sunny Assassin game, worth 8 points, winner take all.5 points awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus.Maximum possible: 28 points

In San Francisco, we will hop on to Dwight's submarine and sail to the coast of Australia, and the beachfront city of Cairns. 24 players will arrive in Cairns, but only 20 will move on. (The map involved is Cairns Metro, just in case there was any ambiguity.) The creator of this map, cairnswk, suggested 6-play Escalating Sunny for this map, as well as for the Sydney Metro map where we are going next. I do think, however, that we should celebrate our time sunbathing on the beach at Cairns (or sunbaking as they call it in Australia) with a nice laid-back No Spoils game too. To prevent the No Spoils game from getting too relaxed, and lasting forever, we will make it a Terminator game, and give double points for kills. This gives people some reward for going all-in. We will also have a No Spoils Trips game. Of course all the games will be Sunny -- we wouldn't want our resort stay to be spoiled by Fog!

Each player will participate in the following:One 6-player Automatic No Spoils Chained Sunny Terminator game. This game scores two points per kill, with no other bonuses for winning or for finishing second.One 6-player Automatic Escalating Chained Sunny Standard game. Scoring will be 5 points to the winner, 4 points to the 2nd place finisher, and so on.One 1v1 Automatic Escalating Adjacent Sunny Standard game, 3 points to the winner.One Automatic No Spoils Unlimited Sunny Trips game, 5 points to each member of the winning team.5 points awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus.Maximum possible: 28 points

Okay, we leave the relaxed beach-bum life behind and head to the big, busy city of Sydney. Here we will pick up the pace to Big City level and definitely use Escalating as our only setting. We will also play more games and get fewer points for each, to simulate the daily grind of working class life.

Four people seem to have lost their passports, so only 16 of us will hop aboard a non-stop flight and zoom to Hong Kong. 16, such a totally binary number! Of course we will have to play some 2, 4, and 8-player games!

Each player will participate in the following:Edited: see here for reason.One 1v1 Automatic Flat-rate Chained Sunny Standard game.One 1v1 Automatic Flat-rate Chained Foggy Standard game.Each of the above scores 3 points to the winnerOne 4-player Automatic Flat-rate Chained Sunny Standard game, scoring 3 points to the winner, 2 points for 2nd place, and 1 point for 3rd place.One 4-player Automatic Nuclear UnlimitedChained Foggy Doubles game, scoring 3 points to each member of the winning pair.One 8-player Manual Escalating Chained Sunny Standard game, scoring 6 points to the winner, 5 points to the 2nd place finisher, etc., down to zero points for the last two places.One Automatic Escalating ChainedUnlimited Foggy Quads game, 5 points to each participant on the winning team.5 points awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus.Maximum possible: 28 points

Four more will be dropped after Hong Kong, and will live out their lives working in massage parlours, so only 12 will make the hazardous trip across Eurasia to Berlin. The Berlin 1961 map is a little different than all the other maps in this series, in that it attempts to recreate a historical, rather than just geographical, entity. The Berlin on this map is Berlin during the Cold War, divided between Russian, French, British, and American zones.

Berlin was originally divided up between the various Allies in World War II, and the manner of its division was indicative of the stresses and tensions between the Allies, as the war against Germany drew to a close and the Allies secretly began thinking of war between each other. The Russians considered themselves to be one half of an East-West partnership. In their eyes all the Western allies were part of the same Capitalist club, joined at the hip, and Russia was the only truly independent Ally. They thus demanded a full half of Germany and Berlin. The Americans saw their interests as being very different from the British and refused to be lumped in together, and thus wanted a three-way split. The British, although heavily indebted to America, were just as mistrustful of the Americans as of the Russians. To avoid being outnumbered in a three-way split, they insisted that the French should be treated as an equal ally, and demanded a four-way split.

In the eventual compromise reached, each point of view was partially represented. As was typical in those late-war conferences, the Russians got the best deal: a segment that was somewhat less than half, but considerably more than one-third. The Americans got almost, but not quite, the one-third they wanted, the British slightly less, and the French least of all. The bonus structure on the map does a very nice job of representing this unequal division, which became so perfectly symbolic of Cold War relations.

In game terms we will model all of the above. We will play a Trips game to simulate the Russian point of view, a 6-player Dubs game to model the American viewpoint, and two 4-player Standard games representing the British and French opinions. To simulate the escalation of hostilites in the Cold War, we will start with Flat-rate, but then go quickly to Escalating and end up with Nuclear. Also, because many people have not played this map before, we will have a special 1v1 game which will start 4 days before the others and be worth only 1 point, so you can get some practise and not lose too many points in the process. And finally, we will have another assassination, to represent cold war intrigue.

Each player will participate in:One 1v1 Automatic Flat-rate Chained Sunny Standard game. This game will be created 4 days before the others and score only 1 point to the winner.One 4-player Automatic Escalating Chained Sunny Standard game.One 4-player Manual Escalating Chained Foggy Standard game.Both of the 4-player standards score 3 points to the winner, 2 points to the 2nd place finisher, and 1 point for 3rd place.One Automatic Nuclear Chained Sunny Trips game, scoring 4 points to each member of the winning team.One 6-player Automatic Nuclear Unlimited Foggy Doubles game, scoring 5 points to each member of the winning team.One 6-player Automatic Nuclear Chained Foggy Assassin game, scoring 7 points to the winner, and a special 2 points to his victim.5 points awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus.Maximum possible: 28 points

The KGB bagged four of our members in Berlin, so we are happy to get out of there with eight of us still alive. A U.S. pilot offers us a lift to Charleston, and we're happy to accept. Charleston saw its share of bloodshed in the American Revolution and Civil War, but that was long ago, and today the city is peaceful and pleasant. The American Robin is seen here often, so we'll celebrate his cheery song with a round-robin of 1v1 games. Then we'll get back together, have dinner, and play a couple 8-player games. After dinner two members will fall asleep and miss the flight to Chicago.

Each player will participate in:Seven 1v1 Automatic Flat-rate Chained Sunny Standard games, one against each surviving member of the tourney, and scoring 2 points for each game.One 8-player Manual Escalating Chained Foggy Standard game, scoring 5 points to the winner, 4 for 2nd place, 3 for 3rd, 2 for 4th, and 1 for 5th. No points for the last three placings.One Automatic Nuclear Chained Sunny Quads game, scoring 4 points to each member of the winning team.5 points awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus.Maximum possible: 28 points

By now you've travelled around the world with the same people and should know them fairly well, so on this stop for the first time there will be more team games than solo games. Scott-Land the creator of the Chicago map wrote, "Optimally it was designed for 6 man triples but I've gotten a lot of feedback on how well it plays as doubles. Being an escalating player, it will play at its best as 6 man when playing singles." We will follow all three of Scott-Land's recommendations, playing Trips, Dubs, and a 6-player Escalating singles game. One player will stay in Chicago and run for Mayor; the other five will go on to the Finals in New York.

Each player will participate in:One Manual Escalating Adjacent Foggy Trips game,One Automatic Escalating Adjacent Sunny Trips game,One Automatic No Spoils Unlimited Foggy Trips game,All three Trips games score 4 points to each member of the winning team. One Automatic Nuclear Chained Sunny Dubs game, scoring 6 points to each member of the winning team.One Automatic Escalating Chained Foggy Standard game, scoring 5 points to the winner, 4 points to the 2nd place finisher, and so on.5 points awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus.Maximum possible: 28 points

It's been called the Big Apple, Gotham, and the Capital of the World. New York is no longer the world's biggest city, it's no longer the world's wealthiest city, and it no longer has the world's tallest building. But at one time or another it was all of those things, and more beside. It's still the headquarters of the United Nations, the home of the world's biggest and most important stock exchange, one of the world's busiest harbours, one of the world's great art museums, not one but several of the world's greatest universities, and many other distinctions. Its unique concentration of political, financial, and cultural influence means the title "Capital of the World" is not hyperbole. And here at last, after a tour of great cities across four continents, you have come to prove your greatness.

The gloves are off. There will be no team games; this is the grand finale, winner take all.Each player will participate in:One 5-player Automatic Nuclear Adjacent Sunny Standard gameOne 5-player Manual Escalating Chained Foggy Standard gameOne 5-player Automatic Escalating Unlimited Sunny Standard gameOne 5-player Manual No Spoils Chained Foggy Standard gameEach of the above will score 4 points to the winner, 3 points to the 2nd place finisher, and so on.One 5-player Automatic Escalating Unlimited Sunny Terminator game, scoring 1 point for each kill, and 1 bonus point to the winner.One 5-player Automatic Flat-rate Chained Foggy Assassin game, scoring 5 points to the winner.Only 3 points will be awarded for the "colour and flavour" bonus on this round.Maximum possible: 28 points

Last edited by Dukasaur on Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:55 am, edited 11 times in total.